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her the furniture and precious stuffs [she had left in her charge]. So she furnished the house and hung up the curtains over the doors and burnt aloes-wood and musk and ambergris and other perfumes, till the whole house reeked with the most delightful fragrance: after which she donned her finest clothes and ornaments Night dccclxiii.and sat talking with her maids, whom she had left behind, and relating to them all that had befallen her. Then she turned to Huboub and giving her money, bade her fetch them something to eat. So she brought meat and drink and when they had made an end of eating and drinking, Zein el Mewasif bade Huboub go and see where Mesrour was and how it fared with him.
Now Mesrour knew not of her return, but abode in sore concern and sorrow that might not be overpast; no peace remained to him nor was patience possible to him. Whenas love and passion and yearning and distraction waxed on him, he would solace himself by reciting verses and go to the house and kiss its walls. It chanced that he went out that day to the place where he had parted from his mistress and repeated the following verses:
That which for thee I suffer I would have hid; but, nay, ’Twould out, and sleep for waking mine eyes have bartered aye.
Since that wanhope doth canker my heart both night and day, I cry aloud, ‘O Fortune, hold back thy hand, I pray,
For lo, my soul is straitened ’twixt peril and dismay.
If but the Lord of passion were just, indeed, to me, Sure slumber from mine eyelids he had not bidden flee.
Have ruth upon a lover, who languishes for thee, The great one of a people, cast down by Love’s decree,
The rich, whom love hath beggared and brought him to decay.
The censors still revile thee; I heed them not, not I, But stop mine ears against them and give them back the lie.
Still will I keep my troth-plight with her I love. They cry, ‘Thou lovest one departed and gone;’ and I reply,
‘Enough; when Fate descendeth, the sight is blinded aye.’
